While it is too early to be talking about 'must win' games, there is no doubt that both teams will be very keen to walk away with the points when Hartpury travel to London Scottish in the Greene King IPA Championship on Friday evening.

The first Hartpury squad of 2019 shows a number of changes from the side that played against the other ‘exiles’, London Irish, last time out.

Steve Leonard picked up a foot injury late in that game and will not feature tomorrow, while Tom Seabrook is one of a number of squad members away with England Under-20s.

Changes in the back division mean that Ben Foley will start at full-back, with Jake Henry and Robbie Smith - the latter stepping up from the University Super Rugby team and making his first Championship start - on the wings.

Steve Leonard (Image: Copyright Unknown)

Smith is the son of former Gloucester captain and Scotland international Ian Smith.

Leonard is replaced by Jamie Forrester, who has played in both of Hartpury's previous league wins this season.

It is all change at half back. Gloucester’s Charlie Chapman should provide some extra zip from the base while the kicking game of Luke Cozens sees him preferred to Sam Leeming, who will join Richard Bolt on the bench.

The pack has a largely familiar look. James Stephenson starts at seven as part of a rugged-looking back row, while Ben Kelland is another making his first Championship start, alongside skipper Simon Linsell in the engine room.

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Hartpury, sitting bottom of the Championship after the recent defeat to London Irish, have had an extraordinarily tough batch of eight matches which has seen them play three fixtures against the Exiles, three against Bedford and two against the Cornish Pirates in recent weeks. All three clubs feature in the league’s top four.

Excluding another visit to Penzance at the end of January, the next five games include four encounters with clubs who are somewhat closer to Hartpury in the table and all of whom are within catching distance, given the right results.

Hartpury director of rugby John Barnes

“Friday night will be a different challenge to the run of games that we’ve just had,” said Hartpury director of rugby John Barnes.

"The past two months have been very tough, as we’ve been playing exclusively against three of the best teams in the Championship.”

“We’ve competed well in some of those games and should probably have won at least two or three of them.”

“Now we’ve got a few matches against teams who are in our half of the table and – if we perform to the level that we know we are capable of – there’s no reason why we can’t start to pick up some wins and some league points.”

“That is going to be crucial, if we are going to stay up this year.”

“Scottish are coming off a tough game down at Cornish Pirates but, as we know only too well, that’s a hard place to go. We’ve had a good look at their recent matches but, like most teams, they’ve been mixing things up in the Cup competition.”

“They’ll fully understand the importance of this fixture. They are at home against the bottom club and they will be expecting to win. I’ve got no doubt that Dave Morris (London Scottish DoR) will have them fully fired-up for this one.”

Jacob Perry takes the conversion for Hartpury RFC v Jersey Reds

Former Hartpury fly-half Jacob Perry starts for London Scottish.

Their side also includes former Gloucester Academy player and Longlevens product Tom Griffiths, who will make his debut after joining on a dual registration from Premiership champions Saracens.